Smart Moms

Everything changes,” muses a character in Nursery Crimes, written
by retired public defender Ayelet Waldman, speaking of having children. “Your
relationship is destroyed. Your looks are shot. Your productivity is devastated.
And you get stupid.” Motherhood, many say, makes you dumb.

A “pessimistic chorus” of parents, non-parents, career women,
stay-at-home moms, and others believe this to be a near “proven scientific
fact,” notes Katherine Ellison in The Mommy Brain. She recounts
a discouraging study in which “researchers showed audiences videotapes
of a woman in various workplace situations—the same woman, the same work,
but in some scenes wearing a prosthesis so that she’d appear pregnant—the ‘pregnant’ woman
was rated less competent and less qualified for promotion.”

This debilitating perception—that “part of your brain exits with
the placenta”—is a relatively recent lie, says Ellison, but a culturally
dominant one nevertheless. Written in a personal and conversational tone, with
an everyday-woman friendliness, The Mommy Brain shows that motherhood
makes women anything but mentally incapacitated.

Ellison cites biological research to show how motherhood, “by means
of a dynamic combination of love, genes, hormones, and practice” changes
the human brain in positive, intelligence-enhancing ways, “baby-boosting” mothers’ brains
in five areas: perception, efficiency, resiliency, emotional intelligence,
and motivation.

Booster Babies

Plasticity—the ability of the brain to be altered with new, positive,
emotionally charged, and challenging experiences—is the key. Motherhood
is one of the ultimate learning experiences, especially since “human
childhood lasts longer than any species on earth,” and for humans, motherhood
is “fortified by powerful hormones and secured with rigid cultural conventions,” to
ensure the survival and success of their offspring.

These “powerful hormones”—oxytocin (the “cuddle hormone”),
estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol (the “stress hormone”)—combined
with a little bit of old-fashioned parenting practice, may prove to be among
the strongest brain-boosters. The “simmering” of female brains
in these powerful, attention- and learning-enhancing hormones causes mothers’ sensory
perceptions to increase in sensitivity. In one study, mother rats experienced “gains
in learning and memory” as demonstrated by their performance in a maze.

But hormones are only half the story. When mothers and infants interact,
they often imitate each other’s facial expressions, exercising areas
of their cerebral cortexes involved in empathy. Self-restraint—a skill
that especially comes in handy with unruly children—exercises areas of
the frontal lobes. All the social practice that mothers get with children increases
their overall emotional intelligence.

And during motherhood, “we [mothers] may be at our most efficient .
. . for good reason.” Evolution may have given an advantage to women
who managed their time well—a much-needed modern life skill.

Mothers also are better able to manage stress. When faced with a “fight
or flight” response, their brains, unlike men’s, release more oxytocin
in response to stress. This calms and comforts them, enabling mothers to respond
with level heads to threats in the environment—a kind of resiliency.

While fathers don’t experience the kind of hormonal changes mothers
do, they can experience “baby-boosted” brains as well. Some scientists
believe that the pheremones involved in “sympathy weight gain” in
men while their partner is pregnant may also help prepare them for the challenges
of childrearing.

But you don’t have to be a parent to benefit, either. Many of the benefits—such
as an increase in emotional intelligence and efficiency—can also be gained
by other adults who work with children, such as childcare providers, teachers,
aunts, and uncles.

Free Mothers

The latter sections of The Mommy Brain deal with the challenges
and difficulties mothers face in the workforce and in the political arena.
The skills learned during motherhood “can be an asset on the job and
at home,” but are often overlooked because motherhood is thought of as
a liability.

This stigma makes many companies reluctant to offer flexible working hours,
encourage breastfeeding, or provide childcare options to women who work and
manage a family. But this doesn’t stop mothers from having their say.
Married mothers are, on average, more politically active than their single
counterparts, and have historically banded together for causes such as drunk-driving
prevention, better working conditions, suffrage, and education.

At the beginning of The Mommy Brain, Ellison remarks, “The
potential to become smarter with motherhood may turn out to be one of this
century’s most hopeful ideas.” She highlights what seems like common
sense: that being held ultimately responsible for another’s well-being
will challenge, even force you to change your life and learn new behaviors.

But what is new about Ellison’s spin on motherhood is its positivity.
Being obligated and dutiful is not something we’re eager to embrace in
a culture where “freedom” means a complete lack of restriction,
obligation, and duty—all things required of parents when raising children.

Though Ellison’s voluminous research is admirable, given that research
into brain differences between the sexes is a relatively new field, only recently
opened in the 1960s, much of that research may remain fundamentally inapplicable.
Early on in her book, she states that readers must keep in mind that conclusions
drawn from experiments on animals do not necessarily apply to humans. And oxytocin,
it turns out, is something of an enigma: Scientists can measure the amount
of oxytocin in the blood, but are unable to track its activity in the brain.

Inspiring & Practical

Though somewhat shakily founded, The Mommy Brain is still an inspiring
book for parents and non-parents alike. Even those with little or no scientific
knowledge can understand it, and the concluding chapter, offering ten practical
tips for new mothers, adds to its appeal.

The Mommy Brain reassures mothers—even (so strong is the
bias against motherhood in our culture) traditional mothers—who feel
that motherhood is the period of drudgery, servitude, and decline described
by Waldman, that their work is valid, challenging, and worthwhile. It also
prepares those not yet parents for the dramatic changes and demands of raising
children.

Jocelyn Mathewes is a graphic designer for the National Fatherhood Initiative (www.fatherhood.org), and is working on her documentary photography series, Women with Icons, recently shown at the Amalie Rothschild Gallery in Baltimore. She is married and attends Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Linthicum, Maryland.

“Smart Moms” first appeared in the January/February 2007 issue of Touchstone. If you enjoyed this article, you'll find more of the same in every issue.

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